The Guardian’s Dr. John Briffa deconstructs the health benefits (or lack thereof) in the Gorillaz’ rider.
Murdoc’s rider
• A magnum of Dom Perignon 98 – love this mixed with orange juice
• Rum – Murdoc home-brew special. Must be at room temperature
• Malibu x 2 large bottles – beats having to climb coconut trees to brew my [...]

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Here are my Top 10 albums of 2010. This year’s list seems decidedly “mainstream” compared to the other lists I’ve seen. Nothing particularly surprising if you’ve been reading Drawer B over the course of 2009. I clearly missed out on a lot of great records this year. Looks like I’ll be [...]

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1. Phoenix, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (Glassnote)
What I love most about Phoenix is its unabashed celebration of pop music. There’s no hidden agenda here. Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix is a pure pop record. Catchy hooks, big multi-tracked choruses, retro synths, and an almost primal sense of rhythm make this record an undeniably infectious listen. Perhaps, over-played by [...]

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When he’s not getting lap-dances, Patrick Wall writes about music with a passion second only to his obsession with making exceptions to his list of exceptions. He is also the Music Editor at Free Times, a contributor to Shuffle Magazine, and a blogger at Weekendsofsound.
Knee Meets Jerk: In Which a Beleaguered Music Journalist Attempts to [...]

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An infrequent contributor, Kevin Foster Langston has a love-hate relationship with listmaking and damn-near everything else. He longs for the time when vampires weren’t such sissies, Black Eyed Peas were merely a side dish and Auto-Tune was nothing but a function on your car radio. He also thinks Meryl Streep is fugly.

1. Dinosaur Jr., [...]

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Logan K. Young is a morally ambivalent freelance writer with a penchant for Disney tween superstars and Jews.

1. Phoenix, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (Loyauté/Glassnote)
2. Dirty Projectors, Bitte Orca (Domino)
3. Passion Pit, Manners (Columbia/French Kiss)
4. Nirvana, Live at Reading (Geffen)
5. Sonic Youth, The Eternal (Matador)
6. Washed Out, Life of Leisure (Mexican Summer)
7. Eric Copeland, Alien in a [...]

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Please do yourself a favor and go read the conclusion of The 50 Worst Songs of the 00’s, F2K over at the Village Voice’s blog. I’ve read it several times already today, and I laugh harder each time. It’s a vicious deconstruction of Counting Crows featuring Vanessa Carleton covering Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi.” There’s [...]

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Slate’s music critic, Jody Rosen, isn’t a big fan of The Decemberists. I, too, share Rosen’s distaste for the most pretentious little Lord Fauntleroy in all of corporate subsidized nerd folk in one Colin Meloy. His reedy voice – embarrassingly overwrought lyrics notwithstanding – is of a timbre my ears find repugnant. When I dislike [...]

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Odd collection, but an enjoyable read/viewing. [via The Daily Sabbatical]

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Logan K. Young contributes to Drawer B when he damn well pleases. He also writes for anyone who will pay him. Ladyboys welcome.
1. Fuck Buttons – Street Horrrsing (ATP)
2. Baby Dee – Safe Inside The Day (Drag City)
3. Free Kitten – Inherit (Ecstatic Peace)
4. Lou Reed – Berlin: Live At St. Ann’s [...]

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I’m the less eloquent half of the Drawer B partnership and I am a fan of the Oxford comma. My tastes skew synth, twee, pop, and lately Scandinavian. I have been known to branch out from time to time, but judging from my list, I apparently did not do so this year. [...]

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Patrick Wall Music Editor, Free Times Blogger, weekendsofsound.tumblr.com.

Knee Meets Jerk: In Which a Beleaguered Music Journalist Attempts to Identify Ten Albums Released Between December 2007 and December 2008 That Were Better Than All the Other Albums Released in the Same Time Period. Listed in no particular order. (Results Subject to Change.)
Capsule [...]

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Robert runs The Daily Sabbatical and has contributed to Drawer B intermittently over the years.
1. Deerhunter – Microcastles/Weird Era Cont. (Kranky/4AD)
An album in the top spot should be difficult to describe, and this one certainly fits that ticket.  Deerhunter has thrown some elements of shoegaze in here, though without foregoing the crisp pop songs.   [...]

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Year-end lists are gratuitous, back-patting, and masturbatory, but, like death and taxes, they are unavoidable. So, we succumb. We’re doing things a little differently this year, inviting current and past contributors as well as a few respected peers to submit their lists, while linking back to their respective blogs. They will be posted sporadically over [...]

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As with any pointless list, this list of the 15 creepiest album covers over at Odee has its share of hits and misses. Anything current like Butthole Surfers or Lords of Acid just seems forced and lame. Ooh, a cartoon pencil jammed in an ear.  Shocking. But some true gold awaits in a few shining [...]

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KEXP in Seattle has posted its top 903 albums (after its spot on the dial: 90.3), and the list – as a collection – is hard to scoff at, despite the ranking order being grossly, wildly out of whack. This was a list voted on by listeners, thus, the crazy high rankings of “new”-ish [...]

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I Kissed A Girl
Wow. I have only even heard 2 of the top 10 songs of summer as listed by Time.
My Summer Jams:
1. Katy Perry – I Kissed a Girl (McFly Remix)
2. Cut Copy – Hearts on Fire
3. M83 – Kim & Jessie
4. Stricken City – Tak o Tak
5. Ting Tings – That’s Not [...]

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Not too many surprises here from Blur’s notoriously quasi-reformed louche, though Martin Amis seems like he would have been a shoe-in for the list with London Fields, what with its influence on Blur’s career-defining album, Parklife. I suppose that was more Damon Albarn’s Bag. Anyway, James’ tastes mimic his English-ness and his former penchant [...]

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Anyone who’s ever written about music and is not employed by, say, Billboard or Rolling Stone can appreciate The A.V. Club’s priceless list of The Worst Band Names of 2007.
There’s no telling what horrors lurk behind such hideous monikers as The Color Fred, Comanche Abortion, The Pleasures of Merely Circulating, Chevy Metal or Cobra Bubbles.
Their [...]

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Amidst the holly and ivy, head colds and lay-a-way lines of this most wonderful time of the year, music critics of all thoughts and tastes cozy up beside the fire and begin making a list. Was the newest Bruce Springsteen record naughty? Was the Arcade Fire’s Neon Bible nice? Checked over twice or more, he [...]

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